The present invention relates generally to combine harvesters and, more particularly, to an improved feederhouse construction to facilitate adjustments of the front face plate member to change the cutting angle of the attached crop harvesting header.
Combine harvesters are typically provided with a feederhouse to mount a forwardly extending crop harvesting header and to convey the crop material gathered thereby to the base unit of a combine for processing. In feederhouse structures of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,266,392, issued to Larimer J. Knepper, et al on May 12, 1981, the feederhouse is provided with a face plate on which the crop harvesting header is mounted. The face plate is movable in a fore-and-aft direction to change the cutting angle of the header.
This feederhouse configuration requires the operator to crawl underneath the feederhouse to loosen and subsequently tighten hardware to move the feederhouse floor to accommodate adjustments in the face plate to change the cutting angle of the header. If extreme care is not used when moving the face plate under these conditions, the floor member is susceptible to dropping out of position relative to the remaining feederhouse floor. As a result, problems of grain leakage from the feederhouse and/or of a feeding restriction through the feederhouse could occur with this structure. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a feederhouse floor that would be movable in response to adjustments of the face plate while maintaining a sealing engagement with the feederhouse floor to prevent loss of grain therebetween.